Reign (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale Book 4) (32 page)

“English then?” Jacob’s eyes narrowed and
he crossed his arms. “My brother insists you are his guardian angel.”

“No, I’m not his guardian angel. I’m his
granddaughter.”

“False. Wilhelm has no children.” He
smiled in triumph, believing he caught her in a lie.

“No, he doesn’t have any children yet.”
She sighed and worried about how to explain what was happening. She was about
to point out the portal to the Fae plane hanging in the air that he had walked
right under, but Jacob was distracted by Wilhelm’s coughing again. “What’s
wrong with him?”

Jacob ran his hands through his hair in
defeat. “I bring him to Halle to see treatment for his…,” he moved his hand to
his chest, “…heart and chest. He is sick and does not get well. I fear to lose
him.”

Mina felt her breath catch in her throat.
This was it. It was Wilhelm. If he died, then his lines of descendants would
never be born. Her father. Herself. This was why some Grimms were disappearing.
Somehow, through it all, she had come to where she needed to be.

But could she save him? She wasn’t sure,
but she had to try. Mina stepped forward and very slowly placed her hand on
Wilhelm’s chest. Just the touch of her hand made him sigh, and he reached up
and placed his other hand on top of hers. She was misty-eyed. How many people
got to travel back and see their ancestors? None.

Jacob watched her like a hawk, and it was
okay. She let him.

The power didn’t come as easily to her as
it did on the Fae plane. In fact, it wasn’t coming at all. It was impossible to
find. And then she sensed it. It was just out of reach…so close…on the other
side of the gate…that hadn’t quite closed yet. So she did the undoable. She
pulled from the Fae plane and the magic came, making her hands glow with power.
She pushed it into Wilhelm’s chest.

He gasped and sat straight up.

Jacob grabbed her from behind and tried
to yank her away.

“No! Not yet.” Wilhelm cried out and his
other hand reached out and grabbed hers, keeping them pressed against his
chest. A few seconds more, and he took a deep breath and smiled. “I can
breathe. The pain’s gone,” he said in heavy accent. “You
are
angel.”

Mina smiled and reached out to give him a
very special hug. “No, you’re my angel. I’ve so much to tell you, but there’s
so little time.”

A loud noise came from the gate. Mina
looked over in horror as a long black robed hand stretched through the glowing
hole reaching out as if testing what was on the other side.

“A Reaper!” Mina grabbed the chair Jacob
had just vacated and hurled it at the hand and through the gate. The hand
disappeared, but the hole still remained open.

“I’m so sorry. This is my fault. I pulled
power from the Fae plane to help you and I think it’s linked the two worlds.
The gate is not closing.”

“What is coming through?” Jacob asked. She
would have thought he would be terrified by what he was seeing. Instead he
looked eager. Wilhelm crawled from the bed, invigorated, and stood before the
portal in his pajamas. He picked up an umbrella and held it in front of him
like a sword.

“Fae,” Mina answered.

“Fae? Like in the stories?” Wilhelm
looked over to his brother and his face mirrored Jacob’s. Excitement.

“Yes, just like the stories.” The room
filled with glowing, moving fireflies and Mina realized that they weren’t
little bugs at all. The shoes were sparkling. Her darned slippers chose this
moment to send her home. “No, not yet.” She grabbed a pitcher of water and
smashed it over the next monstrous hand that tried to crawl through the portal.
It looked like a troll’s. The hand quickly jerked back into the gate.

“Wilhelm. Jacob. Listen. There are good
and bad Fae on the other side, and Teague will continue to send Reapers here to
the human plane to hunt me down. But not only me—all of the Grimms and
our kind for future generations.”

Jacob looked to his brother and nodded
before he turned to Mina and asked, “What will we need to do?”

“Stop them.” The flickering was coming
faster, and they were all retreating into the hospital hallway. “Here, you’ll
need this.” Mina pulled the Grimoire from her dress pocket and gave it to
Wilhelm. “Use it to capture the Fae within the book.”

“What happens to you?” Wilhelm asked. He
tried to reach for her, but she backed away.

“I told you. I’m your granddaughter. I
must go home now. But you can help me—by living. Survive today and all of
the rest just like this one. Don’t give up.”

Jacob wrapped his hand around his
brother’s shoulders and gave him a reassuring hug. “We won’t. We have waited
for this adventure for a lifetime. This is after all, a librarian’s dream.”

She didn’t get a chance to tell them how
to use the Grimoire before she saw both brothers rush back into the hospital
room to battle the Fae that were coming through.

There was only a bright flash of light as
she felt herself pulled away…into a bright tunnel.

Chapter 31

Mina’s body was on fire, her joints and
every nerve in her zinging with pain. She was back in the parlor where she had
left Brody, but the lights were off. The room was empty.

She stood but felt the crunching of glass
as the slippers crumbled beneath her feet.

“Ouch,” she cried. She hobbled back over
to sit on the sofa to pick the pieces of glass out of her bare feet. The pain
only intensified as guilt finally assailed her.

It was her. It had always been her.

Something pressed against her hip and she
felt through the dress and pulled out the knife. In the light of the moon, she
could see the word
Erjad
engraved
into the blade itself. Erjad—Jared.

The door opened, and she quickly hid the
knife in the folds of her dress.

“Mina, is that you?” Brody called into
the darkened room.

“Yes, it’s me,” she whispered softly.

“Oh, thank God.” He left the door open
and rushed in. He wrapped his arms around her, fell onto the sofa, and pulled
her onto his lap. He noticed her bleeding feet. “What happened?”

She sniffed. “My shoes did that.”

“Your shoes? I’ll never understand women
and what they’ll do for fashion.”

Mina laughed. “Believe me, this is not a
fashion statement. More like an understatement.”

He looked her over and frowned in
confusion. “You changed?”

She glanced down at the dress she was
wearing. It was still lavender in color and still had floral petals, but
instead of Fae-made it looked man-made. She wasn’t upset. After all, she
arrived in one piece and wasn’t covered in blood. “In more ways than one.”

She sighed and wrapped her arms around
him, seeking a long hug from him, which he obliged. She held on and silently
cry her heart out.

When her soft hiccups stopped, Brody
pulled away from her and said, “Come on. The night is almost over, and I don’t
want to see you sad.” He lifted her up in his arms and carried her through the
door and into the ballroom.

Her bare feet touched the floor, and she
only winced once from the pain in her foot. The rest was quickly forgotten, as
she was safe and sound, home, and in Brody’s arms.

Safe. What a thought. How she’d taken
that for granted for so long. Would she ever feel completely safe from Teague
again? The familiar song came to an end, and Brody told her to wait right
there. He’d be right back.

She stood in the middle of the dance
floor, barefoot and alone. The Dead Prince Society had already been playing for
a while. The clock on the wall said it was quarter ’til midnight.

The band took a quick break as they
prepared their next set. Mina was sad she’d missed their introduction. Naga,
with his black and white-striped mohawk, set his guitar down and rolled his
shoulders. Burly Magnus set down his drumsticks and grabbed a bag of Cheetos
from the floor beside him. Long white-blond haired Constantine adjusted the
strap of his bass guitar and said something to the lead singer and Brody’s
cousin Valdemar. He put down his bottle and approached the mic again. She was
glad she’d pushed for the band to play here. And glad that the stupid dance
cards ended at eleven and she could have Brody to herself now.

The stage lights danced across the floor,
creating beautiful patterns. The whole thing felt like a dream.

Valdemar began to sing a soft ballad, and
warm hands wrapped around her waist turning her in a full circle. She smiled up
at her partner, expecting Brody’s adoring face.

But she was inches from Teague.

Her smile dropped and her heart pounded
loudly. She tried to pull away, but he held on to her tightly.

“Na, ah, ah. I believe you owe me a
dance.” His words were like ice.

She pushed against his chest trying to
escape, but his hand covered hers, trapping it there.

He gasped. She was touching the
spot—the exact spot where the tip of the Erjad knife had broken off.

“So, Mina. Are you happy to see me? Or
should I say Elle? Mina suits you much better.”

“I’m never happy to see you,” she
muttered, looking over his shoulder at the blank faces of the couples dancing
around them.

“Do you have what I want?” He turned her
in a circle, making her head spin.

“No,” she lied.

“I told you, don’t lie to me.” His grip
tightened around her waist. “The gate never fully closed, you know. It’s faded
over time, and I’ve created others. I never could believe that you came from
the future. I’ve searched for you for over a hundred years. The Grimm brothers
finally gathered the courage to cross over to my world one of your human years
later, to try and stop the Reapers. They spoke of you. Even described you down
to the dress you were wearing the day you fell from my tower.”

“Was thrown,” she corrected heatedly.

“Thrown—fell. The ending was the
same. You disappeared into another world. The brothers said you appeared there,
but only for a short time before you vanished into a ball of light. We could
only assume you went to the future…and here you are.”

She swallowed nervously. “What happened
after I left?”

His eyes darkened and he refused to speak
for a full three measures of music. “I became more powerful than anyone in the
Fae world. More powerful than the Fates themselves. They were scared. They
betrayed me and split my power, my very essence, in two.” He smiled wryly and
raised an eyebrow. “I can’t blame them. They saw their opportunity with the
Grimm brothers, and they took it. But I will make them pay for their betrayal.”

A guitar riff picked up and Teague looked
up in interest. Naga played on, his head bobbing with each strum of the guitar.
Teague turned his focus back to her and stared deep into her eyes. “Well, you
know what happened next. They bound part of my soul to my journal on the Fae
plane and the other half into the book the brothers carried. And wouldn’t you
know it? It’s the same book I gave you. How do you think the brothers got that
book, Mina?”

She didn’t say anything, just waited.

Eventually Teague continued his story.
“The Fates sent them back to the human world, hoping the two books would never
find each other again. But we know that’s not what happened. Thanks to you, my
weaker side, Jared, is gone.” He pulled away from her and gestured to himself
from head to toe. “I’ve never felt more alive and powerful. And now my
Cinderella has finished her quest to the past and retrieved my knife. I’d like
it back.”

“I don’t have it. I lost it,” It
surprised her how quickly the lies formed on her tongue.

Teague gave an exaggerated sigh. “Why
must you lie so? If you had only told me the truth from the beginning, you
could have been part of my reign of destruction. Instead, you will be crushed
under my boot.”

“Everyone has an Achilles heel.”

“What’s that?” he asked. She had piqued his
interest. “Another fairy tale?”

“Greek Mythology.” She held on as he spun
her. Something he saw bothered him, because his face became ugly.

“Ah, I see that the human is coming back
to whisk you away for the fireworks display. But I leave you with one warning.
At midnight I have a surprise of my own for you.” He lifted her hand and placed
a kiss on her knuckles. “I’ll let you wait until after you’ve seen my present.
You may be more agreeable to my wishes in the morning. Until midnight, Mina.
May the next few moments leave you in terror.” He bowed and disappeared into
the crowd.

She tried to go after him, but she ran
into a gray mist and knew that he was gone.

Brody appeared by her side and grabbed
her hand, pulling her up the stairs to the second floor of the hall. She passed
a grandfather clock and saw that it was only two minutes to midnight. Brody
opened a door and led her into a secretarial office with a mahogany wood desk
and matching bookcases. Behind the desk was a glass-paned double door that opened
onto a balcony.